5.  The applicants are:
(1)  Ms Tumisha Baysultanova, born in 1935;
(2)  Ms Zara (in some of the documents submitted her name is also referred to as Taus) Dzhamaldinova, born in 1960 and
(3)  Ms Zulay Bisultanova, born in 1953.
6.  The first applicant is the mother of Mr Beslan Baysultanov, born in 1964. The second and third applicants are Beslan Baysultanov’s sisters. They reside in the city of Grozny, in the Chechen Republic.
7.  The account of the events below is based on the information contained in the application form; the second applicant’s written statements of 25 December 2007 and 14 July 2010; written statements by S.D. and A.D. made on 22 November 2006; a written statement by Sh.D. dated 29 November 2006; and a detailed plan of the relevant area of Ken‑Yurt indicating the location of the second applicant’s house, the adjacent checkpoints, the local military commander’s office and the Temporary Department of the Interior (hereinafter “the VOVD”).
8.  According to the applicants, during the “first Chechen war” between 1994 and 1996 Beslan Baysultanov had been involved with members of illegal armed groups. He had not participated in those groups’ activities during the “second Chechen war” which started in 1999.
9.  In May 2000 Beslan Baysultanov was residing at the second applicant’s home at 40 Beregovaya Street in the village of Ken-Yurt, the Chechen Republic.
10.  At the material time federal military forces maintained a number of manned checkpoints in Ken-Yurt, including on the roads leading in and out of it. The military commander’s office and the VOVD station were located in the village. Ken-Yurt was under curfew, which was strictly enforced and lasted from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.
11.  On 7 May 2000 Beslan Baysultanov, the second applicant, her husband Sh.D. and their children S.D., I.D. and L.D. stayed at home in Ken‑Yurt.
12.  At about 3.30 a.m. on 7 May 2000 the family was woken up by knocking on the front door and an order to open it. When the second applicant did so, around four people wearing masks and camouflage uniforms of the Russian federal forces and carrying assault rifles burst into the house. They shouted in Russian “Police! Don’t move!” and ordered those present to lie down. The applicants inferred that the intruders were servicemen. Upon entering the house, one of the servicemen, who was about 170 cm tall, removed his mask. He had Slavic features and wore a green uniform. Others wore green and spotted green uniforms. Apart from the group of servicemen who had burst in, there was a further group of four to six servicemen securing the perimeter of the house. In the applicants’ submission, some of the servicemen had also spoken Chechen.
13.  The servicemen ordered the men to get dressed and to produce their identity papers. The serviceman without a mask took Beslan Baysultanov’s passport and after it was checked by other servicemen ordered him to follow them outside. The servicemen did not check Sh.D.’s passport. They said to the applicants that they would take Beslan Baysultanov to the local VOVD station (in some of the applicants’ submissions – to the military commander’s office) “for a check”, without providing any further details. They then ordered them to stay indoors for thirty minutes and left, apparently on foot.
14.  The applicants have not seen Beslan Baysultanov since.
15.  The Government submitted that the domestic investigation had obtained no evidence that Beslan Baysultanov had been abducted by State agents.
16.  At about 7 a.m. on 7 May 2000, after the end of the curfew, the second applicant and Sh.D. alerted the head of the Ken-Yurt administration to the abduction of Beslan Baysultanov. He denied knowing anything about it and advised them to apply to the military commander’s office in Grozny. The second applicant contacted that authority shortly thereafter, but they denied having arrested anyone in Ken-Yurt on 7 May 2000.
17.  On the same date, the second applicant filed written complaints about the abduction of her brother with the department of the Federal Security Service in the Groznenskiy District (“the FSB”), the military prosecutor, the head of the local police and the prosecutor for the Groznenskiy District. All those State authorities refused to accept the second applicant’s complaints for examination or to take steps to establish her brother’s whereabouts. In the applicants’ submission, a prosecutor from the prosecutor’s office for the Groznenskiy District (hereinafter “the district prosecutor’s office”) was the only official who promised to follow up on their complaint but they subsequently learnt that he had never done so. In view of the authorities’ refusal to assist them, the applicants had to search for Beslan Baysultanov through their own contacts and efforts.
18.  On 7 May 2000 the applicants learnt through third parties and from Mr Is., the then head of the VOVD, that Beslan Baysultanov had been detained at the VOVD. Is. allegedly promised the applicants that he would “exchange Beslan Baysultanov for six assault rifles” but never did so.
19.  On the morning of 8 May 2000 the second applicant and Sh.D. went to the VOVD station, where they handed over a parcel for Beslan Baysultanov to the VOVD officers. The officers first checked the missing man’s family name and then took the parcel for him.
20.  On the following day the applicants attempted to hand over another parcel for him but the VOVD officers handed it back.
21.  On 10 or 11 May 2000 the applicants found a handwritten note at the entry gate of their house in Ken-Yurt, saying that Beslan Baysultanov had been abducted by “Mr K.’s men”. According to the applicants, at the material time K. held the post of commander of the “West” battalion, which formed part of the Main Intelligence Directorate (“the GRU”) of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation in the Chechen Republic. After that, the second applicant and her husband went to the battalion’s barracks several times to meet K. and to enquire about Beslan Baysultanov, but their efforts yielded no results. At the same time, on several occasions at the battalion’s barracks they saw the serviceman who had taken his mask off during Beslan Baysultanov’s abduction on 7 May 2000. Both the second applicant and Sh.D. recognised him. Mr A., the deputy head of the battalion whom the applicants had also contacted in their search for their relative, told them that the serviceman’s name was “Yura”.
22.  On an unspecified date in May 2007 the second applicant was held at gunpoint by a group of people, who took the file which contained many of the applicants’ documents concerning their search for Beslan Baysultanov from her, including the handwritten note the applicants had found at their gate.
(b)  The investigation
23.  On 25 August 2000 the first applicant wrote to the President of the Russian Federation, seeking assistance in establishing Beslan Baysultanov’s whereabouts. She submitted, among other things, that all State authorities, including the district prosecutor’s office, the police and various military commander’s offices, had refused to accept for examination the applicants’ previous complaints about the abduction of their relative. Moreover, although the district prosecutor’s office had at some point accepted the complaint about the abduction for examination, it had not taken any steps to establish the whereabouts of Beslan Baysultanov.
24.  On an unspecified date the first applicant’s complaint was transferred to the Ministry of the Interior of the Chechen Republic and on 20 October 2000 she was informed that she would be advised of the outcome in due course.
25.  On 22 October 2000 the district prosecutor’s office initiated a criminal investigation (case no. 19076) into the disappearance of Beslan Baysultanov. According to the applicants, two months later the investigation was suspended.
26.  On 3 June 2001 the district prosecutor’s office reopened the investigation in case no. 19076.
27.  On 25 June 2001 the second applicant was interviewed by investigator B. from the district prosecutor’s office about the circumstances of the abduction of Beslan Baysultanov. She informed him, among other things, of the handwritten note concerning her relative’s possible abduction by servicemen from the “West” battalion and of the fact that she had seen one of the servicemen (“Yura”) who had participated in the arrest. B. immediately told her that she should “forget about Yura”. He then compiled an interview record and made the second applicant sign it. According to her, B. did not put down the entirety of the information she had provided during the interview. She signed the interview record without carefully reading it because she trusted that B. would do the necessary to find her brother.
28.  On 7 July 2001 the second applicant complained to the President of the Russian Federation about the abduction of Beslan Baysultanov. She submitted, among other things, that on 20 October 2000 the first applicant had been informed that her complaint about the kidnapping had been forwarded to the Ministry of the Interior of the Chechen Republic, which would advise her of any decision taken. However, in response to the applicants’ queries, that authority had denied the existence of that complaint.
29.  On 12 September 2001 the applicant’s letter was forwarded to the Security Council of the Russian Federation.
30.  On 21 September 2001 the Main Military Prosecutor’s Office forwarded the second applicant’s complaint about the abduction of Beslan Baysultanov to the military prosecutor for the North Caucasus Military Circuit for examination, which sent it to the prosecutor’s office for the Chechen Republic (“the republican prosecutor’s office”) on 8 January 2002, noting that there was no indication of the involvement of servicemen in the abduction of the applicants’ relative.
31.  On 19 February 2002 the district prosecutor’s office informed the second applicant that it had received her complaint addressed to the President of the Russian Federation. The letter stated that on 3 June 2001 the district prosecutor’s office had launched an investigation into the abduction of Beslan Baysultanov under Article 126 § 2 of the Criminal Code (aggravated kidnapping). On 3 August 2001 the investigation had been suspended because of failure to identify the perpetrators. However, operational and search measures aimed at solving the crime and establishing Beslan Baysultanov’s whereabouts were underway.
32.  On 27 March 2002 the second applicant complained to the Prosecutor General’s Office about the abduction of Beslan Baysultanov, describing its circumstances in detail and stressing that it had occurred during curfew hours. She averred that at the material time all roads in and out of the village had been sealed off by checkpoints, that federal troops had been stationed around Ken-Yurt and that there had been a local police station in the centre of the village.
33.  On 16 May 2002 the head of the Moscow office of the NGO “Human Rights Watch” wrote to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation on behalf of the applicants and requested the resumption of the investigation into the abduction of Beslan Baysultanov (criminal case no. 19076). There is no indication that the applicants received a reply to that request.
34.  On 17 November 2006 the applicants’ representatives wrote to the district prosecutor’s office and the republican prosecutor’s office, enquiring about the progress of the investigation in case no. 19076 and complaining that the applicants had not been provided with any information in that respect. They further asked that the applicants be informed of any decisions to suspend the investigation and of the reasons for the belated grant of victim status to the second applicant and sought access to case file no. 19076.
35.  On 28 November 2007 the second applicant wrote to the district prosecutor’s office, seeking information on the progress of the investigation in case no.19076. She submitted, in particular, that although the district prosecutor’s office had informed her that on 14 June 2007 the decision to suspend the investigation had been overturned, she had received no further information since that date. It appears that she received no reply to that query.
36.  On 16 January 2008 the second applicant filed a repeated request for information on the progress of the investigation in case no. 19076 with the district prosecutor’s office. According to a slip furnished by the applicants, the complaint was received by the district prosecutor’s office on the same date. No reply followed.
37.  Despite specific requests by the Court, the Government refused to disclose most of the contents of criminal case no. 19076, without providing any reasons for their refusal. They only furnished copies of: a number of procedural decisions, including those to open, suspend and resume the investigation; several records of witness interviews; requests for information addressed to a number of State authorities; and some of the replies to them. Some of the documents submitted by the Government were illegible and others were only partially legible. The Government also failed to reply to a specific question as to when the applicants had complained about the abduction of their relative to the national authorities. In so far as the documents submitted by the Government were legible, the information they contain may be summarised as follows.
(a)  Opening of the investigation
38.  On 27 April 2001 the Ombudsman for the Chechen Republic, with the President of the Russian Federation, forwarded the second applicant’s complaint about the abduction of Beslan Baysultanov dated 10 April 2001 to the republican prosecutor’s office for examination. The latter authority transferred the applicant’s complaint to the district prosecutor’s office on 2 May 2001. On 24 May 2001 investigator B. from the district prosecutor’s office was instructed to examine the complaint and to take a decision on it.
39.  By a decision of 3 June 2001 the district prosecutor’s office instituted criminal proceedings into the “unlawful arrest” of Beslan Baysultanov under Article 127 § 2 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (unlawful deprivation of liberty, not connected with abduction).
(b)  Interviewing of witnesses
40.  The second applicant and Sh.D. were interviewed as witnesses on 25 June and 2 July 2001. They submitted, among other things, that at about 3.30 a.m. on 7 May 2000 a group of masked, camouflaged and armed men had burst into their house, shouting “Police! Lie down!” One of the intruders had not been wearing a mask. The intruders had ordered the men to produce their identity papers but had only taken Beslan Baysultanov’s passport for checking, following which they had ordered him to follow them outside. In the courtyard there had been a further group of armed and masked men wearing camouflage uniforms. They had told the second applicant that they would take Beslan Baysultanov to the local VOVD station for an identity check and had left by foot. At about 8 a.m. on the same date the second applicant and Sh.D. had gone to the VOVD station to look for Beslan Baysultanov but the VOVD officers had denied having him on the premises. Two to three days later Sh.D. had met Mr Is., the head of the Groznenskiy VOVD, who had asked for “six assault rifles in exchange for Beslan Baysultanov”. On the day following the abduction officers from the VOVD station’s detention facility had accepted a food parcel for Beslan Baysultanov from Sh.D., and Sh.D. had realised that Beslan Baysultanov was being held on the premises of that authority. However, when he had brought another parcel for him on the following day, an officer from the VOVD station’s detention facility had told him that Beslan Baysultanov had not been there.
41.  When re-interviewed on 17 and 26 May 2006, the second applicant and Sh.D. confirmed their earlier statements to the investigators. In addition, Sh.D. submitted that when the VOVD officer had returned the parcel to him, he had found a written note in it saying “in Khankala” (в Ханкале).
42.  Between 18 and 20 May 2006 the investigators interviewed two residents of Ken-Yurt, as well as R.G. and A.D., the applicants’ relatives who had been present at the time of Beslan Baysultanov’s abduction. The former stated that they had learnt about the kidnapping of Beslan Baysultanov from his relatives and the latter gave an account of the events on the night of the kidnapping similar to those previously given by Sh.D. and the second applicant.
43.  Six residents of Ken-Yurt, interviewed as witnesses between 21 and 23 June 2007, submitted that they had learnt about the abduction from Beslan Baysultanov’s relatives. When questioned on 24 June 2007 as witnesses, the applicants’ relatives A.D. and I.D., who had been at home at the time of the kidnapping, confirmed the account of events given by the second applicant and Sh.D.
44.  On 25 and 28 June 2007 the investigators interviewed two officers from the Groznenskiy Department of the Interior (hereinafter “the ROVD”). They submitted, among other things, that the ROVD was in possession of operative information indicating that in 1994-99 Beslan Baysultanov had been involved in illegal armed groups and had offered active resistance to the federal forces. In that connection, the ROVD had taken steps to verify whether he had been arrested by members of the security forces of the Chechen Republic who had conducted a series of “special operations aimed at identifying and apprehending members of illegal armed groups”.
45.  When re-interviewed on 24 January and 4 February 2008, the second applicant, Sh.D. and I.D. confirmed their earlier statements concerning the circumstances of the abduction of Beslan Baysultanov. In addition, the second applicant submitted that in May 2007 she had been assaulted by several people who had told her to stop searching for Beslan Baysultanov and threatened her that if she continued to look for him, she would have to start searching for her own sons. Sh.D. also stressed that at the time of the abduction of Beslan Baysultanov the village of Ken-Yurt had been under curfew, which implied that no one could move around it during curfew hours and that, accordingly, the missing man could not have been taken anywhere without the knowledge of the head of the VOVD. He also reiterated the information he had previously given concerning Mr K. and serviceman “Yura” and confirmed, yet again, that he would be able to identify the latter.
(c)  Further investigative steps
46.  On 17 May 2006 investigators from the district prosecutor’s office examined the crime scene.
47.  On the same date they granted the second applicant victim status in the proceedings in case no. 19076.
48.  On 28 May 2006 the investigators instructed the Ministry of the Interior of the Chechen Republic’s Department for the Fight Against Organised Crime (hereinafter “the UBOP”) and a number of local police offices in Chechnya to take steps to identify possible witnesses to the abduction of Beslan Baysultanov, to carry out door-to-door enquiries (подворный обход) in the area from which he had been abducted and to check whether his body could be found among unidentified corpses.
49.  On 30 May 2006 the investigators asked a number of State authorities in the Chechen Republic to inform them whether Beslan Baysultanov had been arrested by them or detained in their facilities. In their replies, those authorities stated that they had no relevant information.
50.  By letter of 16 June 2006 the Staropromyslovskiy ROVD informed the district prosecutor’s office that they were unable to check whether Beslan Baysultanov could be found among the unidentified bodies found in the district because the latter authority had failed to specify his distinctive features or the clothes he had been wearing when abducted. It is unclear whether that shortcoming was subsequently rectified.
51.  By letter of 26 June 2006 the UBOP informed the district prosecutor’s office that they were in possession of information to the effect that in 1999 Beslan Baysultanov had been involved in an illegal armed group led by Mr G.
52.  On 18 June 2007, following the district court’s order to resume the investigation (see paragraph 60 below), the district prosecutor’s office asked the head of the Groznenskiy ROVD to provide it with the list of officers who had been working there at the time of Beslan Baysultanov’s abduction. The letter stated, among other things, that the criminal case file contained information that the VOVD officers had accepted a parcel for the missing man.
53.  On 22 June 2007 the Groznenskiy ROVD replied to the investigators that it had no information concerning the officers who had worked in its detention facility in 2000 and recommended that they contact the Operational Task Force of the Russian federal forces in the Groznenskiy District on that account. It is unclear whether this has been done.
(d)  Information concerning the pace of the investigation
54.  The district prosecutor’s office suspended the investigation in case no. 19076 on the following dates: 3 August 2001; 10 September 2003; 16 June 2006; 14 July 2007, and 15 February 2008. All those decisions referred to the failure to identify those responsible for the abduction of Beslan Baysultanov.
55.  The investigators decided to resume the investigation on the following dates: 10 July 2003, 16 May 2006; 14 June 2007; 17 January 2008.
56.  The decisions to have the investigation resumed noted, among other things, that the district prosecutor’s office had suspended it without carrying out a number of crucial investigative measures, such as verifying whether officers from the Groznenskiy ROVD/VOVD had been involved in the unlawful arrest of Beslan Baysultanov; granting victim status to his relatives; taking steps to establish the whereabouts of the missing man and to identify the perpetrators of the crime.
57.  In the Government’s submission, the investigation in case no. 19076 is pending.
58.  On 4 May 2007 the second applicant complained to the Groznenskiy District Court (“the District Court”) about the inaction of the district prosecutor’s office. She submitted, in particular, that the investigation must have been suspended on numerous occasions and that the applicants had not been informed of its progress and results, or of any decisions to suspend or reopen it. She referred, among other things, to the district prosecutor’s office’s failure to reply to her representatives’ query dated 17 November 2006 and to the fact that that authority had disregarded the instructions of the republican prosecutor’s office in that respect. She further stressed that she had only been granted victim status in May 2006. Lastly, the second applicant sought access to the case file.
59.  On 25 May 2007 the District Court examined the second applicant’s complaint in her presence. Before the court she described in detail the circumstances of the abduction of Beslan Baysultanov and reiterated her submissions concerning the quality of the investigation.
60.  By a decision of 25 May 2007 the District Court granted the applicant’s request in part concerning the reopening of the investigation. It held that the investigators had failed to rectify the shortcomings indicated by higher-ranking prosecutors. In particular, they had failed to interview officers from the Groznenskiy ROVD’s detention facility or Is., head of the VOVD, who had told the second applicant that he would be able to liberate Beslan Beksultanov in exchange for assault rifles. At the same time, the court dismissed the second applicant’s request for access to the case file, finding that she would only be entitled to it after the investigation was completed.
61.  There is no indication that the applicants appealed against that decision.